Intro to Service Reselling

What is Service Reselling?

Think of all the wonderful services you can purchase from online freelancer websites. Graphic design, copywriting, social media marketing. Those kinds of things. Well instead of you offering the services and doing them yourself, you can offer the work and outsource the service to someone else. That's how straightforawrd as service reselling is.

If you know the right people to get the job done, and you can market their services better than they can, service reselling is worth focusing on.

Why Wouldn't They Buy Directly Instead?

There are so many reasons. Some buyers may not trust that the quality of work is that great on Fiverr, so go to UpWork instead. You can a seller on Fiverr that meets your standards, test them out and market their services for a higher price on UpWork instead. A content writer on TextBroker may have no idea that their skills would earn them more consistent work on People Per Hour, and you can make sure that you make up the difference.

Perhaps you speak another language. The language barrier that a buyer may have had with a freelancer can be overcome, if you act as a middle man, and sell on their behalf.

What if the Seller Finds Out?

The kind of service you attempt to resell will determine how likely it is that the original seller will find out. However, it's probably never going to happen.

Even if they do catch wind of what you're doing, you're the one getting them extra work. It's actually in your benefit to be straight up about it with them, and you may be able to work out a deal for cheaper rates, so long as you get them consistent jobs to fulfill.

What's My Experience with Service Reselling?

My first proper money online came from writing. I enjoyed doing it. I gradually understood what copywriting was, why there's such a demand for it, took part and cashed in. Copywriting for clients of all shapes, sizes, niches and demographics is a challenge, but it was the one skill I knew how to market, so I did.

It's a very competitive field. If you don't keep the standards up, you can get replaced. Easily. If you get bored of copywriting – which is very possible when it's to random briefs for people you have no connection to – you run the risk of writing for the sake of it, and letting standards slip. When I saw that I was literally writing to meet word counts, I decided I needed a break from these kind of gigs. I wasn't inspired. I wasn't enjoying it.

A few years later, when I didn't need to write three articles in 24 hours for less than minimum wage, I was asked to write a little something. I agreed, because writing is fun, but when I got a follow-up request for more, I knew where it was heading. I decided I wouldn't fall into that trap again. If I was going to write for other people, the fees would be high. High enough to pay someone to do it well, so I can skim something off the top.

Whenever I'm ask to do a minimum wage-level tasks, I send it on out to someone I know will do it as good as me. I outsource things within my own company, so there's no difference here. As long as you know how to do it – like refine an article to a brief – you can confidently resell it. I've done the same with social media management, data entry, graphic design, and many other things.

The process is simple. First off, use your own reputation to secure a client. Then someone to do it for you on the cheap, and ensure they meet your qualify standards. Sell it on. Repeat. This can be done on Fiverr if you have an account with lots of feedback. It can be done on a standalone website, if you know how to drive eager traffic to it.

It requires minimum effort and time. Potential clients are all over the place. It gives you the freedom to do other things. Bear in mind that the sort of profit you can expect will depend on the task at hand, but you should at least hope to make 10% on any work. You act as the account manager and let the service people do their thing.

How Much Money Can You Make Reselling Services?

How serious about this are you? As there is such an abundance of people that want these services, and so many skills freelancers that just don't put themselves out there enough, you just need to do the work to put the two together.

You know what I'm going to say: the amount of money you can earn depends entirely on how much effort you put in. Triple check the quality of the work. Price competitively. Be proactive. Combine it all, and you will have a nice little operation on the go.

If you have good communication skills, you can build up a good reputation (either through feedback or good marketing), you can turn this into a consistent money maker.

Overview

Service reselling is all around you. It's your turn to have a go. The profit margins might not be great, but at least you've freed up some of your own time to explore other things.

:::::::::::::
- Chiino
I don't do comments around here, so let's keep the conversation going on Twitter. If Twitter's not your thing, give us an email.